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I mashed 10 cups of whole blackberries with two cups of sugar and added three packages of certo. I didn't cook this as I plan to freeze it. After refrigeration I checked the viscosity and it did not thicken any more. It's fine for toast and pancakes but it would be nicer to have a thicker jam without adding extra sugar and certo. Any suggestions from the experts?

OK. Here's a recipe I've been noodling around with for pickled onions... it's pretty much the same recipe that you'd use for bread & butter pickles, but without the cucumbers and other stuff ... just onions. I've found that frozen pearl onions work just fine for this recipe, so you can make them pretty much any time of the year. You can use fresh pearl onions, but they require peeling, and the ones I find in the produce aisle tend to be a little too large for my liking, since the syrup doesn't seem to permeate them as well. When I make them, I put them in jars, and can them up. They make pretty good gifts, too, since the syrup ends up a yummy looking golden color. A friend told me they're excellent snack food, but I serve them just like I'd serve a relish or a chutney. 1/4 c. salt 2 c light brown sugar 1/2 t tumeric * 1/4 t cloves * 1 T mustard seed * 1 t celery seed * 1 or 2 hot chili peppers (optional) 2 c white vinegar 2 lbs. fresh pearl onions, peeled, or 4 packages frozen Combine everything in a pot except the onions and slowly bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes. Strain out the spices, and return the syrup to the pot. (You can leave the spices in for more zing as they age, but I strain them out because they make eating kind of clumsy later on.) Add in the onions, and return the mixture back to just below the boiling point. Spoon into sterilized mason jars, and add a clove or two (and a hot pepper or two, if you want), and leave a 1/4" headspace... process the jars in boiling water for 15 minutes if you want them to keep more than a week or two. If you decide to serve them up fresh, best to let them steep, covered, in the liquid for at least day or so in the fridge (I'm guessing). * note: you can replace all of these items with a prepared pickling spice mixture if you want. Penzey's makes a really good one that I've used with good success. Also, if you want to use fresh pearl onions, just trim off the root end, and cut a shallow x where the root was, and dunk them in boiling water for a a minute or two -- the papery skins will slip right off. I've also tried making this recipe with cider vinegar, but it added an off flavor that I didn't care for.

A Gremolata reader is looking for Chinese Mustard (either powdered or already mixed). I have not been able to reconnoitre any of the China towns, and am lazily posting in the hope that that there's a TO eGulleter that knows where to find...

I love hot sauces...Im always curious as to what are the great ones since there are so many to choose from... Right now I have... Cholula's (w a wooden top) Tabasaco Habanero Tabasco Chipotle Heaven on SevenHeavenly Blend Emeril's Red Pepper Sauce Frank's Red Hot I like it hot but not way way way too hot you cant taste anything...what are your suggestions! Ive always wanted to try Dave's line and that call me sally stuff...what do you guys recommend that I run out and get NOW

What is Durkee Sauce? That is the question that @Smithy asked in the lunch thread today, and I was wondering if anybody but me has ever been addicted to this stuff. I first got introduced to it when I lived in Montana and it was ubiquitous. Everyone used it and just called it Durkees. In Butte, you couldn't eat a John's Pork Chop Sandwich without Durkees. You had to have Durkees to make sweet potato salad. I've even seen people put Durkees on their pasties. I always thought that it was a West Coast thing until I read this article about the history of Durkee Sauce. Of course, when I came down here it's completely unavailable so I had to learn to make my own. As @Steve Irby says, sometimes it just gets shoved to the back of the fridge so I was wondering if anybody else had dressings or other things that they make with it. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I'm not sure if it was only a Canadian thing, but does anyone remember Kraft Sandwich Spread? https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/Kraft-Sandwich-Spread/6000153707200 In my memory, it tasted like a mayo, ketchup, relish type combo, quite sweet. I haven't thought of it in years. My best friend in elementary school used to bring Sandwich Spread sandwiches. Due to the lunch trading that used to go on, I had tried it and begged my mom to buy it for sandwiches. She said that it was not something you made sandwiches of, but rather something you used along with other things on a sandwich. She was a tough nut to crack and she never did buy it. Seems like it may have been similar to Durkees.

I was looking around for a Christmas present and happened across a packaged collection of hot sauces. That seemed like a good idea, but upon closer inspection, it seemed like it was a generic mix of fiery labels with no indication of whether the contents of the bottles differed in any way. So I thought perhaps I could curate my own collection. But I'm not a hot sauce aficionado. So I guess I could use some help here. I'm looking for 5-6 selections, with high availability (too late for mail order). I think the selection begins with the classic Cholula, perhaps a direct competitor, and a few others to offer some diversity. Can anyone suggest a collection? Thanks, in advance.

I ran out of my favorite day to day sauce last week, Valentina's, and found it out of stock in the area. This is my current pantry stock of unopened sauces (all Canadian) and all too hot for day to day use: And these are currently in use (again all Canadian): The Damien's sauces are very good (especially the LZ with fish. I also have these jellies. The PC hasn't been tried yet. The Mango Reaper jam is really good when used in moderation (especially with Brie or Liverwurst). I've used many others such as Frank's, Tabasco (and many clones), Siracha type sauces......etc, etc. My question to dedicated and casual users is what do you use and why. I'm certain I can pick up some tips here.

Salsa Para Enchiladas 3 ancho chiles 2 New Mexico chiles 2 chipotle chiles 1 clove garlic, sliced 2 TB flour 2 TB vegetable oil 1 tsp vinegar ¾ tsp salt ¼ tsp dried oregano 2 cups broth, stock, or (filtered) chili soaking liquid Rinse, stem and seed chiles. Place in saucepan and cover with water. Bring to boil. Cover and remove from heat and let soften and cool. While the chiles are cooling, gently sauté garlic slices in oil until they are soft and golden brown. Remove the garlic from the oil, with a slotted spoon and reserve. Make a light roux by adding the flour to the oil and sautéing briefly. Drain the chilies and puree them with the garlic slices and half of the liquid. Strain the puree back into the saucepan. Pour the remainder of the liquid through the sieve to loosen any remaining chili pulp. Add the roux to the saucepan and whisk to blend. Add the rest of the ingredients to the pan, bring to a boil then and simmer 15-20 minutes. Taste and add additional salt and vinegar if necessary.

I'm thinking of buying a wet spice/curry paste grinder. Any ideas on what brands are the best? Premier super-g, Preethi ??

In my long years of life, never before have I had or made a curried soup. I found a recipe which appealed to me in a free vegetarian magazine distributed by our local bulk and health food store: Alive . I bring it home to read every time I go in there, although mostly to see what recipes might appeal to me...and most don't I have to admit. It's not that I don't like vegetarian food, which I do, but this is just a tad 'too' healthy for me usually. But this recipe was for a "Spicy Thai Yam and Lentil Soup" and I made it for lunch today. I have to admit that I did add shredded pork leftover from the last Puerco Pibil. If the recipe is traditionally Thai I have no idea, but adding pork from the Yucatan region certainly did not add to its authenticity. It was a huge success and now I am definitely in the market for curried soup recipes. All regional cuisines are welcome. Just found the recipe online: http://www.alive.com/recipes/view/1563/spicy_thai_yam_and_lentil_soup

This is Good! Much better (IMO) than the more widely recognized Huy Fong "rooster sauce." Not as sweet, missing the chemical additives, with a bit of smokiness and packed in glass rather than plastic. My new standard sriracha sauce. We combined our philosophy of using fresh, locally sourced ingredients with the age-old craft of fermentation. We age our secret pepper mash in whiskey barrels for between one and three months. The sriracha takes on complex flavors from the oak barrels and the natural fermentation process. Absolutely no preservatives or additives go into our sriracha. Each bottle is handcrafted and made in small batches to ensure the most intense flavors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpibEm0vFSU

Thanks to eGullet friend, Deryn, I now am equipped to cook my first Thai curry (I hope.) Yesterday I stopped at our go-to Asian grocery store and stocked up on Thai specialities. I have pretty much all the ingredients I need such as: lemongrass, kaffir leaves, turmeric root, palm sugar, coconut cream, seeds of a variety of spices, rice noodles, tamarind, long skinny eggplant, etc, etc, and etc. I already cook some Indian, Arabic, Mexican and Chinese so I have a good variety of ingredients for these on hand. I could spend three hours now googling Thai curry recipes and come away confused about where to start. Please, someone take pity on me and supply me with a starter's type of curry. (No seafood please and thank you.) My thanks for any and all help.

For those folk who have access to a fig tree or two, here is a recipe for Green Fig Preserve inherited from my fathers recipes. The resulting product is magic on buttered toast and with cheese. The figs must be picked before they ripen and soften. Whole Green Fig Preserve Ingredients: 100 green figs 2 tablespoons bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) 3.4 litres water Method: Scrub the figs and cut a cross into the end opposite the stalk. Mix the water and bicarbonate of soda and soak the figs overnight. Remove from the water and weigh the figs, recording the weight. Place into clean boiling water and boil for 15 minutes or until just soft. Drain and then dry the figs well, removing excess water. Syrup: For each 500g figs or part thereof, mix 500ml water with 500g sugar. Boil the syrup until it just starts to thicken. Add the figs and boil until the syrup is thick. Add 1 tablespoon lemon juice for each 250g figs and just bring to the boil again before removing from the heat and letting cool. Bottle the figs and cover with the syrup. Note 1: If the syrup froths whilst boiling, add a small lump of butter. Note 2: A small stick of ginger can be added during the boiling process to add a slightly different flavour.

A friend recently gifted me with a small jar of this incredible Bomba Calabrese. I thought I'd died and gone to spicy heaven. :wub: This particular brand is made by Gigi and is a product of Italy. The ingredients are: eggplant, pepper, hot chili peppers, mushrooms, artichokes, sunflower oil, olive oil, spices and salt. It is also not in chunks or pieces, but is easily spreadable. I found a few recipes for Bomba Calabrese online, but would like to try one that someone from eG recommends if possible. Barring that, I will make one of the found recipes and blenderize it perhaps. And also try to locate the product locally. I've contacted the distributor but not heard back yet. Thanks for any help.

I am currently making some hummos types of spreads and have been making them in a vitamix. The vitamix is getting way too small so I bought a 23 quart robot coupe and it's too slow and will not emulsify like the vitamix. I've been forced to do part of the process in a vitamix and part in the robot coupe but it's so inefficient. Anyone out there know of a faster food processor that will emulsify large batches of food. I've looked at colloidal mills but they are too expensive, but really cool. One of my spreads is an almond+cilantro pesto that is sooooo delicious I usually make about 14 half lb. containers and sell out at markets around NYC pretty quickly. I'm looking to wholesale these soon so need to make a lot more. thanks

Pannukakku has become a new favorite in the McAuley household. (LCBO Food & Wine, winter season 2016). We've been using Maple Syrup...made with DH's help in a local sugar shack...but the recipe actually calls for birch syrup. Does anyone know where to buy it in Ontario? Any grocery stores carry it? Specialty stores? Toronto? What about in the Cambridge/Kitchener/Waterloo area? Thanks.

I make this a lot. Traditionally served with dosa, but great with all kinds of Indian food, even just scooped up with bread or pappads for a snack. Although it's slightly different every time, depending on the tomatoes and chillies used, plus the strength of the tamarind, it's easy, quick to make and always delicious. In a blender - half a medium red onion chopped, 7 dried red chillies broken up a bit, 2 ripe tomatoes chopped, 1 tsp of sea salt, 3 tsp tamarind paste. Whizz until purée like about 2 minutes. In a sauté pan over medium heat add 60 ml sesame oil (gingelly), when it's hot but not smoking add 1 tsp black mustard seeds. Quickly cover the pan to prevent escape and sizzle for a minute. Add 1 tsp of urad dal (black lentils, skinned and split they are light grey). Fry until golden, another minute or so. Throw in about 20 curry leaves. These splatter so cover the pan again. Lower the heat and add the blender contents. Simmer, stirring frequently for about 10 minutes, until you get a runny jam consistency. Ta da !

Pennstation's Honey Mustard taste so good, but they don't sell it in stores like Big Boy Frisch's sells their tartar sauce. I am assuming they buy it in bulk from a certain name brand. Does anyone know what that brand is or at least a similar Honey Mustard recipe?

One of my local supermarkets recently installed a sesame seed pressing facility and is now producing sesame oil and sesame paste. Their equipment toasts and extracts the oil and the residue is turned into the paste. Of course, I bought some of each. I have only used the oil so far. It tastes and smells more intensely than any I have bought before. The aroma also seems to last longer in a dish. These are the white seed versions. They also do black seed oil and paste which I haven't bought yet. Neither has any brand label - only a bar code on the back so that the check-out staff can deal with it. I am sorely tempted to try this recipe from Carolyn Philips for celtuce with sesame oil, paste and seeds. I'll let you know how I get on with this or any other recipe. Suggestions welcome, as always.

So excited that our Seattle Seahawks are in the Super Bowl this year! What are people making? Any Seahawk fans planning a Seattle-inspired menu? One that doesn't involve any last minute cooking? I'm making sourdough bread and bacon/onion jam to go with someone's beef tenderloin. To bring in some Seattle touches, we'll have smoked salmon, a Northwest berry cobbler. And as a nod to Seahawk colors: blue corn chips and guacamole. There'll be IPAs of course (Seattle's a very hopped up city)but I'm also trying to come up with a clever cocktail - or hawktail (I've thought of making blue rock candy to use as a sugar rim on a sage margarita).

Vietnamese Pickled Eggplant These use tiny white eggplants that are nearly impossible to get here. I tried to grow them without success (this time). I did not have these so used unripe cherry tomatoes. Ingredients 2 lb eggplant (tiny white SE Asian types) or green cherry tomatoes. 1/4 cup salt 1 TBL galangal root 1 TBL ginger root 12 green chilies - thai peppers or serranos 6 cloves garlic 1/2 cup onion finely chopped 2 cup Granulated sugar 2 cup water 1/4 cup fish sauce 1. Rinse off eggplant and pierce with a knife - or cut in half if larger than 3/4 inch in diameter. 2. Put eggplant into jar and add salt - and water to top of jar. Cover with plastic lid and cover loosely. Let ferment for 7 days. 3. Take out eggplant and drain. Rinse with water. Put into jars again. 4. Chop ginger, galangal, chiles, onion, and garlic. 5. Boil water and sugar, add spices and onion, and heat for 5 minutes. Add fish sauce. 6. Pour over eggplants making sure the spices and onion get all around (might have to take out some eggplant and return). 7. Cover with plastic lid, and refrigerate. 8. Ready in several days. Will last a very long time in the refrigerator. Notes: Good alongside other SE Asian dishes, or even alone with rice. The green tomatoes are not the same texture as the eggplants, but are quite good. The eggplants are very crispy.

Hi, I am making Southwest Grilled Shrimp for Memorial Day tomorrow and I was wondering if anyone had suggestions for a good dipping sauce to pair with it? The shrimp uses a McCormick Perfect Pinch Southwest Spice, Garlic, Olive Oil, Red Wine Vinegar, Brown Sugar ect. It is a slightly spicy grilled shrimp that is great! I was thinking maybe a Russian Dressing Dipping sauce would be good, but I have never made that before. I would love any suggestions.

Basically, this is a hybrid of the two traditional types of pickles. To my surprise, after a great deal of research, it’s new as far as I can tell. In any event, I came up with it independently. Here’s the story. Several years ago, when developing my recipe for kimchi, I read a lot about natural fermentation. From which I learned the object is to produce lactic acid with the ubiquitous bacterium lactobaccillus plantarum. Meanwhile, I had long ago decided I prefer naturally fermented pickles (e.g., Bubbies) to those cured with vinegar (e.g., Clausen’s). What would happen, I wondered, if I prepared traditionally vinegar-cured pickles with lactic acid directly? At the time, though, I couldn’t find a source. Later, when looking for ingredients for Modernist Cuisine at Home, I happened upon Modernist Pantry and noticed they have the elusive lactic acid in powder form. After numerous trials, I worked out a recipe. It marries the convenience and flexibility of quick curing with the less obtrusive flavor profile of lactic acid. The result isn’t as complex as a natural ferment, but it’s a heck of a lot easier, more reliable and more versatile. The method works with pretty much anything that anyone pickles with vinegar, including cucumbers, beets, mushrooms, turnips, cauliflower, onions, asparagus, green beans, eggs, apples, etc. For convenience and ease of refrigerator storage, I built my recipe around 1 litre canning jars. (Quarts also can be used, of course.) How much main ingredient will fit depends on how closely it packs after prepping, but 1‑1/2 lb is typical. If appropriate, blanch or otherwise cook so as to be tender but not soft. If appropriate, cut into bite-size pieces. For the brine, combine 2 c water, 2 tbsp kosher salt (18 g) and 2 tsp lactic acid powder (6 g). For sweet pickles, e.g., Bread & Butter, I reduce the salt to 2 tsp and increase the lactic acid to 1 tbsp. Notably, according to my electronic pH meter, the 2 tsp lactic acid brine has a starting pH of about 3.2; once it equilibrates with the main ingredient, the pH rises to about 3.8; the recommended level is 4.0 (or less), which is well below the 4.6 needed to inhibit botulism. Flavorings may be added as desired, including garlic, dill, chile, spices, herbs and/or sugar. As with the main ingredient, the flavor profile of just about any vinegar-cured pickle can be adapted for the lactic acid brine. A few practical points. I like to sequester the flavorings in a bouquet garni bag. It’s not necessary, but makes for cleaner pickles. Also, I find infusing the brine works better than cold packing. Bring to a boil, add bag with flavorings and let cool covered. Put bag in bottom of the jar, add main ingredient and pour brine over. Most main ingredients float, so I insert a pickling spacer to submerge them. My favorite spacer is an inverted lid for a stainless steel dredge shaker, available from restaurant supply stores and online (e.g., here and here), as it happens to be exactly the right diameter (70 mm) to fit inside a wide mouth canning jar. An inverted plastic storage cap for regular size jars also works, though it’s a bit too wide (not easy to get in and out of the jar), solid rather than perforated (no brine above the top layer), and, well, plastic. Finally, curing takes at least a few days, but a week works better. Like most quick-cured pickles, texture and flavor generally suffer if held more than a month. Anyhoo, having learned a great deal from the forum, I thought I’d drop this in as my little contribution.

Prawn Balchao is a very famous Goan pickle that has a sweet, spicy and tangy flavor to it. For the balchao paste you will need: > 8-10 kashmiri red chillies > 4-5 Byadagi red chillies > 1/2 tsp cumin seeds > 1/2 tsk turmeric powder > 1 tsp peppercorn > 6 garlic cloves > 1/2 tsp cloves > 1 inch cinnamon stick > Vinegar First you will need to marinate about 250 grams of prawns in some turmeric powder and salt. After 15 minutes deep fry them in oil till them become golden n crisp. Set them aside and add tsp vinegar to them and let it sit for 1 hour. Now, make a paste of all the ingredients mentioned under the balchao paste and make sure not to add any water. In the same pan used for fryin the prawns, add in some chopped garlic and ginger. Lightly fry them and immediately add one whole chopped onion. Next, add the balchao paste amd let it cook for 2-3 minutes. Add in the prawns and cook until the gravy thickens. Finally add 1 tsp sugar and salt according to your taste. Allow it to cool. This can be stored in a glass jar. Let this mature for 1-3 weeks before its use. Make sure never to use water at any stage. This can be enjoyed with a simple lentil curry and rice.